Tour de France Stage 3 Crash: Pile-Up Involves at Least 20 Cyclists

The Tour de France paused after a crash along stage 3 of the competition injured cyclists and forced some to withdraw from the race Monday.

Australian rider William Bonnet lost control of his bicycle and fell at the edge of Côte de Bohissau, which was only 37 miles away from the race’s finish line. Bonnet’s fall resulted in a chain-reaction pile-up involving more than 20 participants, forcing at least six riders — including Tom Dumoulin, Simon Gerrans, William Bonnet, Laurens tens Dam, Dmitry Kozontchuk, and Fabian Cancellara — to leave the race and seek medical attention, according to Bleacher Report.

Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director, neutralized the race so the injured could get help and the accident scene could be cleared.

Bonnet lamented about the crash, saying that his team had been “racing really well together” before several of them were injured in the collision. "We were all on the right-hand side of the bunch and I think it crashed on the left and just went across and we all had nowhere to go," he said, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"I managed to dodge past two or three guys in the grass and I finally got caught up on someone and went down and as soon I gathered my bearings I knew that I'd hurt myself straight away," he said.

“My wrist was pretty sore so [the team] shipped me off in the ambulance to the hospital for some X-rays and it confirmed I've broken both the bones in my forearm and now I'm plastered up and on the sidelines for a little while I guess," Bonnet continued.

Bonnet says he will go for a second opinion before undergoing surgery.

The incident was Swiss biker Cancellara’s second crash this year. The yellow jersey race leader fractured two vertebrae during the pile-up and immediately signaled to race personnel that he felt dizzy and was having vision issues. He still managed to make it through the stage 3 finish line before going to the hospital.

“This is incredibly disappointing for me,” said the rider, according to The Guardian. “The team was on a high with the yellow jersey and were very motivated to defend it. We have had a lot of crashes and injuries since the start of the season, and we finally had a great 24 hours but now it’s back to bad luck. One day you win, one day you lose.”